La vie est trop courte pour mauvaises bananes: Scolopendre

So, if you refer back to the "uninvited guests" post, you remember I talked about that nasty monster I thought was a centipede, well actually it's the infamous scolopendre of Guadeloupe. I've heard about these beasts since the first day I got here but assumed it was something else. Come to find out last night, on the contrary, that is what was in my room. Apparently, the only way to kill them is chop there head off with a machete (it has to be the head. If you chop it in half, it rejuvinates. I'm not kidding you, it rejuvinates). So, you can remember I said it crawled under my fridge and died, well, that was before I knew all the intricacies of the beast, and upon inspection under my fridge this morning, it's gone. Gone. Gone. I have no idea where to, most likely lurking in the shadows, plotting against me. Needless to say, I'm scared.

On a lighter note, I went to Dominica. It's the "nature" island. Formerly a British colony, but now independent. It was a two hour ferry ride from here, and apart from being refused back to guadeloupe on our original departure time, it was quite nice. We went on the Boiling Lake hike. By far, the most intense, craziest hikes I've ever been (and probably ever will go) on. It took us about 6 or 7 hours, 14 miles.

Our tour guide, Michael, leading us out of the Valley of Desolation

The Valley of Desolation, a huge area full of boiling sulphur and baren land.

The boiling lake

The sulphur baths we swam in and climbed to the top of.

One of the delicious meals we had at "Le petite paradis", the little place we stayed at, run by momma Joan and her husband. So sweet.

Remnants of a bus crushed by a tree in 1979 when hurricane David hit, and destroyed most of Dominica.

Champagne beach, had some really nice snorkeling. They call it champagne beach because when your under the water you can see the bubbles coming up from under the sand and coral, really cool.